FOOTBALL: Granby surges to win against Housatonic/Wamogo, 36-6

FALLS VILLAGE >> The Housatonic/Wamogo football team was able to overcome a slow start, but a rough finish to the second quarter proved to be their undoing.

Jeremy Steiwing scored the Mountaineers' lone touchdown and Granby used a 16-point burst in the closing minutes of the first half to post a 36-6 victory on Friday night in Falls Village.

Last season, Housatonic won this matchup on the road to improve to 4-0 but this time they were on the other end and are now 0-4 on the season. In its third season of varsity football, Granby improved to 2-2 with the win.

Granby is in its third season as a varsity program and has already matched the number of wins from its first two seasons combined.

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"We just need to keep getting better and execute," Granby coach Rich Gadoury said. "If we can execute we can be a tough team to play against."

A 42-yard touchdown run by Ben Marlor and a two-yard TD pass from Curtis Field to Ian Downey gave the Bears a 14-0 lead. Marlor's TD came after a Mountaineers turnover but after the slow start, Housatonic started to get its single-wing rushing attack in gear.

Steiwing capped a long drive with a 6-yard TD run and Housatonic was within 14-6 with about 6 minutes left in the first half. That's when Granby's Stephen Blake took over.

Blake capped a 75-yard TD drive with a 20-yard touchdown run with 1:53 to go. Blake took a handoff and bounced outside the left end and raced into the end zone. He added a run for the two-point conversion and the Bears led 22-6.

The Mountaineers then once again hurt themselves with a turnover.

"We got off to a slow start, we have a nine-yard run, get a first down and then fumble," Housatonic coach Deron Bayer said. "Then near the end of the half we just imploded. They drive on us, then another turnover and it hurt us."

This time Blake struck on defense, scooping up a fumble on Housatonic's second play of the drive and racing 35-yards for a touchdown. Blake added another run for the 2-point conversion to extend the Granby lead to 30-6.

The Mountaineers fought hard in the second half, forcing a fumble on the Bears' first drive and taking over at the Granby 18. But the drive stalled on an interception by Marlor and Housatonic didn't really threaten to score the rest of the half.

"We did some things and at times we had kids in the right spots, we just have to make plays," Bayer said. "We'll go back to the drawing board and keep working and find something so we can be competitive. We are getting a lot of kids on the field. We just have to find some combinations out there that will make plays."

Field capped the scoring with his second TD pass of the game, a 25-yard scoring strike to Caleb McMullin with 8:47 to go.

Granby bottled up Housatonic's ground game for the most part and was balanced on offense. Field completed 12-of-22 passes for 186 yards, Blake ran nine times for 61 yards and Downey hauled in five passes for 83 yards.